Earnings - Comptroller and Auditor General of India

Report No.6 of 2006 (Railways)These arguments are not acceptable in Audit as the work of improvinghandling facilities should have either been taken up prior to notification of thestations for handling trainload traffic or immediately thereafter. There washeavy regular traffic both inward and outward, at all the three stations tojustify the creation of full rake handling facilities on priority basis. The issueraised by audit relates to the detentions caused to the wagons due toinadequacy of full rake handling facility and not about shunting that isrequired due to the inadequacy. The loss suffered on account of inadequatefacilities was avoidable. Had the facilities been provided, the end to end gainsreferred to by the Railways would have been higher.The matter was taken up with the Railway Board in October 2005. Their replyhas not been received so far (December 2005).2.5.3 Southern Railway: Avoidable empty haulage of MainlineElectric Multiple Unit rakes from PalghatTown to Erode for maintenance due tonon-creation of facilities at PalghatNon-creation of maintenance facilities at Palghat for Mainline ElectricMultiple Unit rakes and hauling the same to electric Loco shed, Erode resultedin avoidable expenditure of Rs.1.54 crore on its haulageA Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) service between Palghat Town(PGTN) and Coimbatore (CBE) was introduced (August 2002) to run as trainNos. 631/632. Though creation of maintenance facility was necessary toensure the safety, reliability and operational needs of MEMU rakes, noseparate shed for this purpose was available on Southern Railway (March2005).A proposal for the construction of inspection pit lines for MEMU maintenanceat Palghat Town (PGTN) at a total cost of Rs.29.85 lakh was made by theDivisional authorities (June 2002) seeking its inclusion in GM’s out of turnsanction for the year 2002-03. This proposal was for provision of the lowestminimum facilities required to start regular inspection and maintenance ofMEMUs. This proposal was not pursued as the space available at PGTN wasfound to be insufficient. Due to non-availability of facilities at PGTN theMEMU rake was decided to be moved to Electric Loco Shed, Erode (at adistance of 293 Kms. from Palghat) every Saturday night for weekly/ monthlymaintenance.Provision of maintenance facilities at Palghat was again proposed for inclusionin the works programmes 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06. The proposal of2003-04, though approved by the Additional Members Committee at theBoard’s level, was not included in the Pink Book. The Railway Board deferredthe 2004-05 proposal stating that the work would be considered after theapproval of the report by the Executive Directors committee. The proposal for2005-06 was dropped in the Additional Members’ Committee Meeting held inNovember 2004. As an interim measure for the maintenance of MEMU rakes,a proposal for the provision of pit line and stabling facilities for MEMU rakesat a total cost of Rs.79.50 lakh was initiated (January 2005) for processing for66